Numerous cartridge magazines for use with firearms have been previously devised. The magazine configuration is typically dependent on the kind of cartridge that is being contained. Pistols and rifles for firing .22 rimfire cartridges are popular weapons among shooters. The assignee of the present invention is the owner of a number of patents directed to magazines for housing .22 rimfire cartridges. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,760, issued Jun. 16, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,094, issued Dec. 13, 1988, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,620, issued Sept. 5, 1989 describe curved magazines for housing .22 rimfire cartridges. These magazines are configured to be used with rifles. With regard to pistols for firing .22 rimfire cartridges, the assignee is also the owner of U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,283 issued Apr. 9, 1985 that discloses a cartridge magazine having a straight body for housing .22 rimfire cartridges. Another magazine for housing rimfire cartridges for use with a plastic pistol is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,595 issued Mar. 31, 1992. These two magazines are preferably made of plastic. A metal body magazine for housing .22 rimfire cartridges is made by Sturm-Ruger & Co., Inc. and is identified as "Mark II.RTM.". The .22 rimfire cartridges that are housed in the foregoing magazines can be categorized in accordance with two general groupings. A first group consists of .22 rimfire cartridges that have a rounded and substantially smooth bullet that is fired from the firearm, with the shell or casing being ejected. In a second group, the bullet is truncated and does not have a rounded tip configuration. Instead, the bullet is substantially frusto-conical in shape. Many shooters either prefer or find the truncated cartridge design advantageous, at least in certain shooting situations. The truncated bullet is marketed as having hyper-velocity, in comparison with regular, rounded nose bullets.
Because of the truncated design, it has been determined that the truncated .22 rimfire cartridges create cartridge jamming problems when fed into .22 pistols using the straight magazine body design. That is, when truncated cartridges are fed by straight body magazines, that perform as expected for rounded bullets, jamming problems occur in .22 pistols. In testing available cartridge magazines having a straight body, it was determined that these magazines create jamming problems with .22 pistols at an unacceptable level when they are feeding truncated .22 rimfire cartridges. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a magazine that properly feeds both regular and non-rounded .22 rimfire cartridges without causing cartridge jamming that can occur due to cartridges having flattened noses, shoulders and the like.